IGN posted up 12 smoking minutes of gameplay from Dying Light featuring the main protagonist free-running through a zombie invested shanty town. The gameplay video transitions from day to night and unveils that once night strikes, a more serious, violent threat emerges. The gameplay is very similar to both Mirror's Edge and Dead Island.

The entirety of the video is mostly summed up in the first paragraph, but if you want to get into the specifics, Dying Light takes place in a semi-apocalyptic environment. There are still guns, guys in hazmat suits and planes dropping off supplies throughout the world, but all the civilized aspects of life are far and few between.

One of the interesting aspects of the short play-through was when the main character encountered the little girl hiding in the closet. By completing the side-missions it brings up the pertinent question of whether or not these side-missions actually affect the main missions? Or more importantly, will they change the outcome of the game later on or are they just there to fill out the play-time?

The thing that was most impressive about Dying Light's gameplay demo was that the running and parkour looked very seamless and smooth. It almost seemed like it came right out of Mirror's Edge, which is a good thing. Being able to combine that kind of free-form parkour with a zombie apocalypse setting makes a ton of sense.

However, the zombie aspect was somehow the low-ball features of the game. The real danger is apparently when it gets dark. Now, I don't know if it's just the demo or if the main game will be different, but the day to night shift took place in pre-scripted scenarios (the dialogue sequence kind of gave away that much). Now, again, I don't know if for demo purposes the day and night shift was prescripted but if it's not then that could prove to be a very, very, very interesting mechanic.

Basically, once night time hits the zombies get more aggressive and those things from Blade 2 with the octopus mouths seemed to come out and provide a very steep challenge for the protagonist. How many roam around at night or if they can be defeated with kung fu and hammers remains to be seen, but hopefully they keep some aspects of Dying Light mysterious enough so that players still have something to discover when the game releases.

Techland's new title is set for release next year for current and next-gen systems. You can learn a bit more by paying a visit to the game's official website.